Bob McManus worked for 29 years for the New York Post, twelve of those as editor of the editorial page; after retiring, he contributed columns until one month before his last deadline. Fluent in the brash argot of his workplace — he summarized the Covid-related and sexual harassment scandals that drove Andrew Cuomo from the governorship as “killing grannies and pinching fannies” — he had solid conservative principles and an encyclopedic knowledge of New York politics, state- and city-wide.
He belonged, as he himself acknowledged, to an earlier era of print journalism.
When NR’s Richard Brookhiser was scouting the Post’s offices for a documentary on its founder, Alexander Hamilton, McManus apologized for the quiet that often now prevails — no clacking typewriter keys, no jangling telephones. In mid-spiel he was interrupted by a Postie, reporting that Eliot Spitzer, yet another soon-to-be-disgraced governor, had been caught with a prostitute.
As the newsroom erupted in bustle, McManus excused himself to write it all up.
Dead at 81, R.I.P.